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As startups and small businesses grow and expand, SEO becomes more and more valuable. There are many small businesses that are not taking advantage, or perhaps are not well informed, about applying SEO to their business. Using the correct local SEO strategies can help businesses get ranked and increase their visibility with industry-specific keywords, resulting in an ever-increasing number of qualified leads. In this post, we’ll go over 10 of the best local SEO strategies to help boost visibility of your small business.
Updating & Optimizing Google My Business Account
A highly ranking factor for all SEO strategies, an updated Google My Business is key for your business to show up on Google search results. A Google My Business (GMB) account also gives users vital information about your business that include your business hours, services provided, relevant links to your website, and more. However, simply creating a listing without actively updating it may lead to nothing. That’s why it is important to maintain your listing and actively update photos, posts, and respond to all reviews.
Gather Positive Reviews
There’s no better influence on your online reputation than positive, quality reviews from your customers on your GMB listing. Positive reviews give Google a signal that your business is legitimate and trustworthy, thus helping it rank higher in the long run. Being on top of these reviews and answering back in a timely manner also shows Google that your account is active and ongoing, while also displaying business authenticity to all potential clients.
Improve Your On-Page SEO
Local and On-page SEO go hand-in-and, improving both is the perfect combination to a healthy online presence. On-page SEO improves your page’s search rankings by optimizing the content and structure within your website. These can include a site audit, creating powerful and relevant meta descriptions, using the right keywords, improving site speed, and developing a variety of applicable content. Aligning both local SEO and on-page SEO is not difficult, the key is doing it right and constantly testing your results.
Create Local Backlinks
A known practice for off-page SEO is the acquisition of quality backlinks and for local rankings, it can be a crucial move. A quick way to gather valuable local links is with the use of local trusted directories such as Yellow Pages, TripAdvisor, or your city’s local chamber of commerce site. These local links can benefit your website greatly as they’re reputable and relatively easy to acquire.
To put it simply, acquiring relevant backlinks from other local sources, whether blog mentions, references, or features can aid search engines in understanding your organic position.
Be On Top Of Your Online Reputation
A big chunk of, if not all, customers search for a business or a service online and a big influential part of their decision-making relies strongly on what the search engines are telling them about your business. Are there negative links attached to your presence? Or perhaps a few costly reviews? These can be vital factors, regardless of what stage of the purchase process these customers are in. Having a clean digital outlook is key, not only for the client’s perception, but also for how relevant your business listing is to the search engines.
A controlled online reputation means an influx of positive reviews, active social media channels, providing relevant and informative content for your readers, and more. Being proactive gives both search engines and your potential customers the opportunity to perceive your business in a positive light.
Optimize Your Site For Mobile Devices
In 2021 over 55% of all search traffic came from mobile devices, if your site is not optimized for mobile your business is suffering and missing out from potential visitors and leads. Google’s algorithm has moved to a mobile-first approach, meaning that they’re prioritizing ranking factors by a website having a responsive and user-friendly interface. With a responsive website also comes speed and user experience, if your mobile site is laggy or takes time to load specific pages, users are more likely to move on, potentially costing your business. As page speed and responsiveness increases so does user experience. The key is to provide the reader with the information they searched for, avoiding incuriosity and a higher bounce rate.
Providing a mobile-friendly engagement helps readers stay longer on your site, and signals Google and other search engines that your site presents a solid and optimized framework.
Keep A Consistent NAP
The acronym NAP stands for Name, Address, Phone and it is vital to have your NAP consistently placed on your website, on your GMB listing, and other relevant listings across the web where your business has a presence. To help Google and other search engines better understand your NAP and business information, adding a Schema local business markup to your website is key. However, adding the correct Schema structure should also be carefully placed, that’s why Google provides a testing tool that lets you check if you’ve set up the widget correctly.
Providing a consistent NAP between your website and external listings is imperative for all local SEO strategies.
Use Relevant Local Keywords
Gathering the right keywords for your SEO efforts can be a lengthy and precise process, but it does have extremely rewarding results. To succeed at keyword research, you have to first understand what your potential customer is searching for, then strategically implement these valuable keywords onto your website, that way search engines can successfully crawl them and help your site rank. It’s important to also visualize the quality and search volume of all keywords, how often they’re being used (especially by your competitors), and if these keywords are location specific and relevant to the area being targeted.
Choosing the correct keywords for your local SEO approach allows mobile users to find you and take quick action, such as visiting your business, calling, or requesting information over other competitors. A helpful method of checking for the right keywords is using tools like Google’s Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, Semrush, and others. These tools help you understand specific details on what your local SEO keyword strategy might be missing, their search intent, and your target location’s search volume.
Using the right keywords will take your business a long way toward helping it rank organically on all major search engines.
Create Content Aimed At Local Searches
Content is KING! That’s right, a powerful content strategy is a sure way to quickly increase your page views, improve traffic, and provide valuable information to users. Developing content for your local SEO consists of a few crucial steps, these can make or break your creation, so we always recommend a careful optimization process. To start off, content creation can be anything from images, copy, video, to infographics. These can then be broken down into smaller categories within.Creating content aimed at local SEO searches has to be defined with specific keywords, as mentioned earlier, and that comes in the form of meta descriptions, ALT text, keyword-rich body content, and more. It is recommended that every piece of content be somehow connected internally to links within your website, as well as relevant external links.
Another essential and useful content type for your site is a detailed contact form with a clear call to action, and most importantly a consistent NAP! To align with that, developing articles or blogs intended and aimed at local searches will help reach location-specific customers and expand your keyword usage on your website. Using the right content creation for your local SEO push is a pivotal advantage to help your website rank higher.
Build A Strong Social Media Presence
Some see social media as a mere tactic for potential customer engagement, branding, and a communication channel. While that is all true, most businesses miss the opportunity that having social media channels automatically create positive backlinks. Social media also serves as a foundation for exposure, such as the possible creation of qualified backlinks from other reputable sources. These sources may want to link back to specific social media posts because it gives them value. An example of this is creating a blog or article informing of your services to locals and showcasing it on your Facebook page, automatically creating a backlink that quickly boosts your visibility from a local perspective. Social media channels like Facebook and LinkedIn are also great ways to keep your NAP consistently throughout the web, building on the idea of social media as an efficient way to boost your local SEO.
Social media channels like Facebook and LinkedIn are also great ways to keep your NAP consistently throughout the web, building on the idea of social media as an efficient way to boost your local SEO. Ninety can help you build your social media presence and engagement from the ground up.
Conclusion
There are many possible ways to successfully enhance your local SEO efforts, whether optimizing your Google My Business account, using relevant keywords in your website, providing beneficial and informative content, keeping your NAP consistent – the possibilities are almost endless!
If you’re ready to give your website and your online presence a boost from a local perspective, Ninety Web has all the tools to help your business succeed. We offer free consultations and quotes, so when you’re ready be sure to connect with us!
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